To Restart Finno-Ugric Movement, Estonia, Finland and Hungary Should Convene a World Congress and Involve Diasporas, Leaders of Finno-Ugric Capitals Body Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 17 – On the Day of Related Finno-Ugric Peoples in Estonia, four leaders of the Finno-Ugric Capitals organization have called on colleagues in Estonia, Finland and Hungary to convene a world congress of Finno-Ugric peoples and to include representatives of Finno-Ugric peoples who have fled Russia among its participants.

            Such a meeting, Oliver Loode and Liisa Sabolotni of Estonia, Aleksi Palkangas of Finland and Peter Aranyi of Hungary argue will help restore the movement to where it was before 2022 when Putin’s war in Ukraine cut off many Finno-Ugric peoples from each other and from the three Finno-Ugric countries (capitals.uralic.org/news/call_to_revitalize_ru/).

            The reason the four are convinced that this is the best way forward is that it would restore the efforts the three Finno-Ugric countries made before World War II, efforts that involved emigres from Finno-Ugric groups still living under Soviet control and inspired those peoples by offering such unity.

            The four call on the three Finno-Ugric countries to “carefully examine the history of Finno-Ugric cooperation before World War II with the goal of operating on it and adapting it to the realties of the 21^st century,” including involving Finno-Ugric diasporas around the world and especially those including representatives of people within the borders of the Russian Federation.

            Such an effort promises much greater success than attempts to revive the network of arrangements that existed before Putin launched his expanded war of aggression against Ukraine.